The Top Entrepreneurs in Money, Marketing, Business and Life

Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews!
The Top is FOR YOU IF you are:
A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)
STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)
An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)
The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).
Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.
Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at NathanLatka.com/TheTop

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Jim Fowler, the founder and CEO of Owler– the crowd sourced competitive intelligence platform business professionals are using to out-smart their competitive insights and uncover the latest industry news and alerts. Prior to Owler, Jim founded Jigsaw in 2003 and was the CEO until it was acquired by Salesforce in 2010 for $ 175 million.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Good to Great

What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk

Favorite online tool? — Owler

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No

If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “How to plan for the worst case scenario and hope for the best case scenario”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:43 – Nathan introduces Jim to the show

02:12 – Jim was at NathanLatka.com/thetop73

02:45 – Where is Owler now?

03:23 – New product of Owler

03:41 – Do I need to build manually or you scrape the data out of searches?

04:32 – Most data input by users

05:00 – HeYo’s data on Owler

05:24 – Data sources

06:00 – Howler’s challenge

06:47 – Data sources without human input

06:53 – “No data set is perfect”

07:15 – Benchmark start

08:05 – Number of active users

08:45 – Making money by selling the data on the backend

08:47 - Crowdsourcing

09:21 – Total revenue in 2015

09:41 – Jigsaw’s success

10:20 – Active user definition

10:50 – Data pricing

11:13 – Licensing deals

11:50 – Competitive proximity

12:30 – Type of company who’s willing to spend millions on the data

12:46 – 3 buckets of types of big partners

13:33 – Resellers

14:05 – Financial services institution

14:40 – Goal in 2016 in terms of numbers to hit

16:20 – Why are the people willing to pay regardless of the accuracy of the data?

Josh Ledgard, co-founder of KickoffLabs to The Top. KickoffLabs is a viral lead generation platform with amazing landing pages, lead capture forms, and e-mail marketing rolled into one seamless package.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The 4-Hour Workweek

What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk

Favorite online tool? — https://www.helpscout.net/Help Scout

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes

If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Working smart is way more important than working hard”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Josh to the show

02:03 – What KickoffLabs does differently and how it makes money

02:15 – Engage customer as a form of marketing

02:43 – Online advertising

03:12 – KickoffLabs is a SaaS business

03:58 – Pricing plan

04:20 – Customer churn for HeYo

04:40 – Josh’s monthly churn rate

05:10 – How to mitigate churn rate

06:00 – Paid acquisition

06:08 – Types of paid acquisition

06:48 – Monthly spent on blog content promotion

07:18 – Bootstrap or fund raised?

07:23 – Bootstraped since 5 years ago

07:45 – How did Josh get into the business

08:00 – Josh and his co-founder’s ideas

09:02 – Promoting 6 ideas

09:49 – Total number of paying customers

10:25 – Monthly revenue

10:49 – First year revenue

11:50 – 2015 revenue

12:07 – Goal for 2016

12:21 – Adding 30% to annual revenue

12:43 – Lifetime value

13:14 – What are you willing to spend as a CEO for an acquisition?

14:10 – Total value per new customer

15:01 – Total team size

15:10 – 100% remote

15:32 – Long-term goal for the business’

16:20 – “Will you take a million dollar deal?”

16:47 – Ownership percentage

17:42 – Connect with Josh thru his Twitter and you can send him an email at josh@kickofflabs.com

19:58 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Evaluate your progress and study your growth.

If you want to start with a business – explore on different ideas.

Be a goal-oriented person.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.

Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.

Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.

Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+

Nathan Putnam, an entrepreneur who’s currently working on a company called Monumetric. Their focus?—help people unlock the earning potential behind online content through data analysis and optimization strategies. As Nathan says, “What we do is not magic. It’s science.”

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Start with Why, Reality Check, Leaders Eat Last

What CEO do you follow? – Brian O’Kelley

Favorite online tool? — Slack

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “No. Not close”

If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Look stop listening to music as entertainment. Remember, whatever you put in your brain, that's what's going to come out”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Nathan Putnam to the show

02:27 – Monumetric functions

03:44 – Current number of publisher partnerships

04:05 – Why people use Monumetric and not Google Analytics or AdSense

04:29 – Second price auction

04:58 – “Google is our best partner but also our greatest competition”

06:55 – Business was founded in 2014

07:07 – Started entrepreneurship in 2012

08:23 – Total revenue in 2014

08:40 – Got a few good publishers

09:18 – Sixsistersstuff.com

09:44 – Driving customers acquisition

10:20 – Monetize traffic

11:10 – Biggest costs

11:38 – Number of buyers and advertisers

11:43 – Six top-tier providers

12: 36 – The publisher on the six sisters’ site

13:04 – Integrated with 5 largest agencies

13:30 – Percentage that goes back to the seller

14:20 – In 2015, total amount of ads spend that went through the platform

14:35 – Cost structure of revenue

14:50 – Social or website traffic

15:19 – Disenchanted with agency’s space

15:45 – Use it in a way that reinforces the platform’s model

16:46 – “What you can monetize is what you own”

17:05 – Self-funded or boot strap

17:08 – Bootstrap

17:04 – Current team size

17:35 – Connect with Nathan thru his LinkedIn

19:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Utilize your platform to maximize its full potential.

Build honest and genuine relationships.

Always seek the opportunity.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.

Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.

Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.

Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+

Sue Zimmerman, the creator of the online Instagram course Ready, Set, Gram! In addition to her popular instruction, Sue is also a powerful speaker on prominent stages like Social Media Marketing World, and a highly sought after business coach. She's passionate about teaching business owners and marketing professionals how to leverage the power of Instagram to get tangible business results.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Book Yourself Solid

What CEO do you follow? – Sophia Amoruso

Favorite online tool? — Dropbox

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “Absolutely. I have to”

If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “I wish I knew how to collaborate with people who I knew, like and trust.”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:37 – Nathan introduces Sue to the show

02:40 – Sue’s focus at the moment

02:45 – How to leverage power of Instagram stories

03:04 – How Sue makes money in teaching

03:17 – Successful online courses

03:56 – Paid webinar

04:18 - Sent email to list of a little over 21,000

05:24 – Registration from the list

05:50 – Thousand seats for webinar

05:58 – UTM links

06:20 – Maximum revenue for successful campaign

06:26 – Between $5,000 and $10,000 on a week preparation

07:10 – How to manage priorities with the team

07:23 – Nurture sales funnel

07:48 – Ready, Set, Gram

08:43 – Partnered with trusted affiliate

09:27 – Business model

09:35 – Online marketing educators

09: 58 – Payment per student

10:09 – $700/month on a 6-month plan

10:33 – Create a micro community

11:25 – Total revenue for 2015

11:35 – Goal for 2016

12:03 – Closed her store last year

12:27 – Started her store in 2007

12:52 – Sue’s payment per speech

13:05 – First paid speaking gig

14:04 – Different ways to get compensation when you speak

14:40 – Connect with Sue thru her Instagram and use the hashtag #suebmademedoit and tag her and Nathan

17:35 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Take the risk—removing something valuable from your live is worth it if that valuable thing keeps you from growing.

It always feels good to be able to help and empower people.

Focus on your priorities – teamwork always come in handy.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.

Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.

Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.

Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+

Gavin Zuchlinski, the founder of Acuity Scheduling—the slickest way for businesses to automate and manage their appointments online, allowing clients to schedule themselves. He’s a self-professed tech geek and an espresso-maniac who wholeheartedly believes that business should be totally fun.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Anything You Want

What CEO do you follow? – Andy Grove

Favorite online tool? — Canary

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “8 and a half hour is my ideal number”

If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Spend more time doing the things you enjoy doing.”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:37 – Nathan introduces Gavin to the show

02:09 – Gavin is on his 4th espresso for the day

02:25 – How Acuity Scheduling generate sales

02:30 – SaaS to manage scheduling appointments online

02:48 – Developed for Gavin’s mother

03:00 – 2006 started

03:21 – Start of Gavin’s business

03:48 – 2007 first year in business

04:05 – Only a side project

04:54 – First year revenue

05:21 – Transition from working as a government employee

05:50 – Organic search results and SEO

06:24 – Had friends’ sign up on private link

06:45 – 2013 decided to shift

07:15 – Hired the first employee

07:50 – “Keep things small”

08:20 – Number of users on free trial

08:50 – Number of users at the moment

09:25 – 10% month over month increase

09:50 – Number of users in the past week

10:54 – 85% active users on paid accounts

11:46 – Most SaaS count their total base

12:57 – Growth from organic results and referrals

13:54 – “When the rate of growth gets too high, that’s when I need to hire”

14:07 – Total team size

14:18 – Everyone is remote

14:40 – Support works for only 6 hours a day

15:18 – Team size question is Gavin’s pet peeve

16:06 – Growth customer churn is about 8% per month

16:18 – Dashboard churn

16:40 – Current customer acquisition cost on average

16:55 – 10 dollars to acquire for paid acquisition

17:12 – Total marketing spender

18:07 – Total expected earnings from a new unique customer

18:58 – Monthly RPO

19:37 – Gavin’s bootstrap

19:50 – Goal for the company

20:08 – “Create a company where I enjoy working”

20:47 – Connect with Gavin thru his website and LinkedIn

22:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Sometimes, you just have to choose – and choose what makes you happy.

Small team has advantages too – it’s easier to manage.

Just be patient and let things grow slowly.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.

Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.

Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.

Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+

Egbert Ootsburg, onto The Top. Egbert runs a company that designs apps for the scalding-hot consumer drone market. Listen as Egbert talks about his strong ambition to make a difference in the world and how he takes advantage of the drone market.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Zero to One

What CEO do you follow? – Andy Stanley

Favorite online tool? — Evernote

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “Are you kidding?”

If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “To get started faster and not to wait for something to occur before giving yourself permission to succeed”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:37 – Nathan introduces Egbert to the show

02:06 – How Egbert generate money

02:18 – Open Skkye App

02:45 – Helps Drone pilots find places where to fly versus not fly

03:25 – 2015 total revenue

03:44 – Drone Aviator

05:00 – Leaving the corporate world

05:10 – Worked with Pfizer in 2009

05:38 – Biggest recommendation

05:55 – “There’s always a way to bootstrap something”

06:20 – Egbert did a consulting job

06:31 – Consulting revenue

07:07 – The gap between the pre-revenue and 2009

07:35 – Drone industry

08:25 – Creative ways to decrease expenses

08:36 – “Live on the basics that you need”

08:52 – Cut the monthly expenses to 45% of previous total

09:09 – 4 kids

09:46 – How much money you keep is NOT how much money you make

10:05 – Reason why Egbert’s business attracted investors

10:24 – Experience in aviation from Navy

11:05 – Anticipated revenue in the next quarter

11:55 – About half a million registered users

12:17 – New items every week

12:37 – Connect with Egbert thru his LinkedIn and Twitter

14:55 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Believe in the vision of what you’re doing and create value.

It is about how much money you keep, not how much money you save.

Get started faster.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.

Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.

Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.

Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+

Keith Perhac onto The Top. Keith is a marketing expert, developer, and designer. His goal is to take complex things and make them simple, understandable, and actionable for business owners. Today he is the CEO of SegMetrics and DelfiNet, technical marketing agencies that help companies create highly optimized sales funnels.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Work the System

What CEO do you follow? – N/A

Favorite online tool? — HarvestApp

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes

If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “It’s not as scary as jumping off and leaving the company that you’ve been working on for 6 years to start on your own.”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:13 – Focus: DelfiNet or SegMetrics

03:02 – Founding day of SegMetrics and first revenue

04:20 – How SegMetrics is built

04:50 – Focused on building the greatest product

05:48 – Margins are better in SaaS

06:19 – Average sales per customer per month

07:10 – August Revenue

09:40 – 50% gross margins

10:15 – Biggest lever to increase profitability

11:02 – Traffic increased drastically

11:55 – Acquisition cost

12:16 – Biggest affiliate

12:33 – Second biggest affiliate

13:54 – Bootstrap

14:26 – Similar with Angel Investing

15:10 – The business’ worth

16:13 – Keith was based in Japan

16:38 – Developyourmarketing.com

18:57 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Take advantage of your on-peak time.

Turn your previous challenges into positive experiences.

Don’t just focus on sales, focus on creating a great product.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.

Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.

Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.

Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+

Pablo Fuentes, founder and CEO of Proven—a company that specializes in small business HR solutions. In addition to his passion for helping both minorities and women start businesses, Pablo also owns a BA from UCLA and an MBA from Stanford.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Art of Learning

What CEO do you follow? – Richard Branson

Favorite online tool? — LinkedIn

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Absolutely

If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Start Jiu-jitsu earlier”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:35 – Nathan introduces Pablo to the show

02:04 – How Pablo’s business generates sales and collaborates with talent managers

03:21 – First year revenue in 2009 versus revenue in 2015

03:45 – How do you make money?

03:55 – When small businesses post a job

04:30 – Average pay per company location

04:51 – Average revenue per user

05:00 – Lifetime value

06:10 – Average churn = of 2 years

07:10 – August Revenue

08:10 – Subscription vs. pay as you go pricing

09:40 – 50% gross margins

10:15 – The biggest lever to increase profitability

11:55 – Company is fully remote

13:55 – Revenue goal for 2016

16:56 - @provenpablo

19:44 – What were you trying to raise before you stoped last year?

22:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Don’t give up just yet – give your company a time to grow.

Balance is everything.

Have a goal and focus on pursuing it.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.

Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.

Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.

Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+

Yuri Elkaim, a nutrition fitness and fat loss expert, onto the podcast. Yuri is a New York Times best-selling author of “The All-Day Energy Diet” and “The All-Day Fat Burning Diet”. He's a former soccer player turned health crusader, and is most famous for helping people who've tried everything to lose weight but enjoyed very little success.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Zero to One

What CEO do you follow? – Peter Teal

Favorite online tool? — Google Docs

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— About 7-8

If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Focus on one thing”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:34 – 25 million Youtube views

03:06 – Yuri’s focus on building now

03:59 – Webinars

04:11 – Conversion from the webinar

04:30 – Shut down the sales page

04:39 – Facebook Ad expenditure

05:21 – Totalwellnesscleanse.com

05:40 – Facebook ad look and landing page

06:17 – Eyelid test guide

07:00 – Number of webinars per month

08:00 – No domain for webinar

08:30 – Webinar sell price

09:05 – Webinar is a great tool for teaching

09:26 – Ways to normalize the funnel

09:30 – Cost per lead

10:38 – Number of viewers needed to get one new sale

11:00 – One webinar, they get 5 sales

15:14 – Call to action in Youtube videos

16:03 – Sample video titles from Youtube

16:50 – Get people to click on the ad before 30 seconds

17:10 – Youtube ad overlay

17:40 – Webinar Jam

18:02 – Total sales of cleansing product

18:35 – Yuri’s first episode with Nathan

19:05 – Check Yuri’s website and his group

21:25 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Gaining the trust of the customer is a like having a relationship—let them know you better.

Utilize your online resources.

Don’t be scared of changes—they can lead to a better opportunities.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.

Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.

Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.

Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+

Matt Tumbleson is the founder and CEO of Teckst – a New York based startup that's transforming customer service by directly connecting consumers with businesses via 2-way text messaging. His own frustrations with lengthy hold times and incompetent customer service representatives are why he decided to launch Teckst. Prior to jumping into entrepreneurship, Matt worked as the Creative and Marketing director of Seamless (now Grubhub), and worked as a graphics journalist at The Miami Herald.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Delivering Happiness

What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff

Favorite online tool? — WorkFlowy

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes

If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Stick to one thing long enough to see it through”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:37 – Nathan introduces Matt to the show

02:31 – What Matt does and how they make money

03:09 – Selling ROI

03:15 – Created software in a house in NY

03:33 – They have monthly subscription plan

03:50 – Currently have 5 clients

04:10 – How a client used Matt’s product

05:37 – Created encrypted SMS

06:40 – Works with Memebox

05:22 – How does Betterment use you?

06:40 – 65% gross margins on labor

06:55 – Matt put his own equity for the company

07:30 – How old were you when you launched this and did you feel comfortable leaving your job?

07:40 – Started in his late 20s

08:20 – 6 months deal

08:51 – Reason Matt left his job

09:13 – Launched Teckst in 2012 but officially launched in 2013

10:06 – First year revenue

10:45 – Total funding raised

11:40 – Enterprise client pay per month

11:50 – Thousands or tens of thousands monthly

12:05 – Number of team members

13:12 – Acquisition costs and churning

13:35 – Lost a client once

14:15 – Did Google Adwords

14:50 – Matt’s lifestyle

15:50 – Average the customer have to pay to get them on board

18:39 – Upside on quarterly business review

19:13 – MRR last month

21:17 – Connect with Matt on his LinkedIn and twitter @teckstco

23:53 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Think 10x. That’s how you should think regarding business.

Even if you’re the CEO, you still need to learn and grow.

If we can do everything right, we can hit all the numbers.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.

Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.

Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.

Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+

Johnson Emmanuel the founder and CEO of Clients Attraction, a company that specializes in online marketing strategies engineered to attract big-ticket clients. Listen as Johnson shares his story of starting a business in Nigeria, and how he used his passion for marketing to start chipping his path to the top.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – The Ultimate Sales Machine

What CEO do you follow? – Richard Branson

Favorite online tool? — Asana

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No

If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – Focus on your marketing and charge more sooner.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

02:20 – $230K in revenue in 2015

03:00 – How Johnson’s company makes money

04:00 – Johnson uses a lot of Infusionsoft with his clients

04:30 – When you’re selling a high value product, you don’t list your prices you have a conversation

05:15 – Johnson charges his clients between $5k and $20k per month

05:55 – Johnson’s top client paid $25K last year

07:30 – It’s important to learn, but don’t overstimulate yourself

08:15 – It’s normal to be afraid of raising your prices, but it’s a part of good business

08:45 – During Johnson’s first year in 2013, the company’s revenue was about $32K

11:08 – The catalyst to Johnson’s success was helping his clients understand the flaws within their marketing systems

12:39 – Johnson is based in Lagos, Nigeria and he employs 17 people

13:08 – The company’s goal is to hit $1M in 2016

14:00 -- $5k per day on PAID media

15:40 – Average cost per employee per month in Nigeria? $500

16:12 – To date, the business has worked with 30 unique customers

18:54 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

If you want to sell to high-value clients, you need to engage them in a conversation.

If you engage in too many educational inputs, you’ll inhibit your own success.

Charge more sooner.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.

Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.

Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.

Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+

Pejman Ghadimi, a self-made entrepreneur and best-selling author born in Iran, raised in France, and crushing it in the United States since 1997. Listen as Nathan and Pejman talk bottom-line numbers, exotic cars, and what it takes to build a multimillion dollar business from scratch.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Start With Why

What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk

Favorite online tool? — N/A

Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No

If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – Take life more seriously.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:40 – Nathan introduces Pejman to the show

02:15 – VIP Motoring

02:45 – At its core, VIP is an automotive investing service

05:00 – Legal bribery

06:30 – Pejman sharing his payout

06:56 -- $2.6M net cash flow

07:12 – What Pejman does with the money he takes from VIP Motoring

07:45 – Buying luxury assets

09:05 – The exotic car market allows people to get in and out of it quickly

09:34 – These cars aren’t meant to be driven, no one ever drives the cars, they never see public roads

11:10 – The industry and room for growth is limited by demand…the people buying these high-value cars are limited in supply

12:38 – Secret Entourage— A mindset, attitude, and a way of life. The relationships you form that revolve around yourself. The network that helps you be successful. The movement that.

13:30 – The entrance fee is $200

14:20 – Secret Entourage was not established as a revenue generating business

14:50 – As many as 36,000 sign ups in 2015

15:36 – How Pejman drives signups and facilitates exposure for his brands and drives new customers

17:50 – Pejman’s email list has 100K people, but he doesn’t use the list very often

19:40 – Nathan drill Pejman on the definition of “his movement”

20:59 – @ICreateMillionaires

23:16 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

Obscure industries can be extremely profitable.

Just because you have a massive email list, doesn’t mean you should exploit it.

You will always be limited by demand so be aware of what that demand is.

Resources Mentioned:

Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal developers.

Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.

Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.

Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+

Sweeney Daniel, a partner at Hustle and Grow and Click Bank University. He launched his first company in high school which lead him to working full time in digital marketing. He decided to leave the corporate grind and is now focused on helping others create their digital business while maintaining a fun lifestyle.

Michael Litt started his first video company, Redwoods Media, as his undergraduate thesis project. He then evolved with his partner to create another successful video software company, Vidyard. He has learned the value of supportive family and friends throughout his life as an entrepreneur. Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Behind the Cloud What CEO do you follow? — Mark Benioff Favorite online tool? — Gmail Do you get 8 hours of sleep? — I try to. If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – If you want to be an entrepreneur, surround yourself with people who love and support you. Focus on those relationships.

Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:40 – Nathan introduces Michael 02:15 – He started at the University of Waterloo and Research in Motion 03:00 – He graduated at 25, and the Redwoods Media was built as his undergraduate thesis project 03:50 – He contracted businesses to sponsor their company 04:50 – They were passionate about the video company, and turned down jobs at places like Google 05:30 – Vidyard is a video platform for business 05:50 – They sell that technology to businesses on a monthly basis 06:10 – Average revenue per customer is about $30k 06:35 – They have an inside sales team 07:25 – Four categories of businesses and sales teams 07:50 – 132 people on their team, and they have almost doubled in the last year 08:15 – Growth pains are opportunities to learn 08:55 – Looking at retention instead of churn 09:25 – Gross retention is 95% 09:45 – Net retention is 135% 10:47 – They have raised $70 million in funding 11:00 – Customer acquisition cost is paid back in 1.5 years 11:15 – Average customer acquisition is $40000 11:45 – Customers stay for quite a long time, according to the numbers 13:27 – Why lifetime value is tricky 13:45 – They focus on payback period for their customers 14:25 – Being honest about their business and their numbers for customer acquisition costs 15:10 – They include hard costs, like any work supplies 15:40 – Total customers is private 16:05 – They are looking to triple the business for two years, and then double the business for the next three years 16:40 – It would show their potential to go public 17:00 – Building a fast growing, high-value business 17:25 – Tom Tunguz’s Blog 17:45 – Revenue is private. 18:15 – They broke through $1 million for their first full year of sales 18:45 – Michael has a holiday party every year at his office. 19:00 – Project Christmas has carried throughout their business 19:28 – The Fall is a great time to raise money 19:55 – Connect with Michael at Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn 22:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points: Your first business ideas will develop into bigger, better projects. Be honest about your company and spending. Surround yourself with people who love and support you as you pursue your entrepreneurial dreams.

Resources Mentioned: Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Toptal – Great for business people to start building their app Behind the Cloud - Michael’s favorite business book Gmail – His favorite tool, besides his own Tom Tunguz’s Blog – Learn about the best models that public companies use Connect with Michael at Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Mathilde Collin, CEO and co-founder of Front. Her app has developed email and inbox features meant specifically for teams. Growing up in France, Mathilde realized that being an adult wasn’t fun—that getting a job usually meant a life of misery. She would not settle for that. She knew from the beginning that she had to create a job that she loved, and so Front was born. Famous Five:

Favorite Book? - The Hard Thing About Hard Things What CEO do you follow? — Patrick Collison Favorite online tool? — Front! and Slack. Do you get 8 hours of sleep? — Yes. If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – We can be happy at work. Get a job you love.

Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:40 – Nathan introduces Mathilde Collin 02:00 – Front App is an inbox for teams. 02:25 – A SaaS company founded in 2014 02:50 – She started the business when she was 22. 03:05 – She realized a lot of people didn’t like their job, and she wanted to solve that issue for herself. 03:35 – 2015 revenue was $1 million 04:00 – 1210 companies use Front 04:20 – A large variety of company sizes 04:50 – Why they raised millions in capital. 05:25 – Email is complicated, so you need to invest in resources and good engineering. 05:45 – She already had a loan from studying in France. 06:15 – They raised with key people who could help. 06:37 – They wanted to invest in hiring super qualified people. 07:05 – Team of 21 in San Francisco 07:15 – Monthly expenses are about $200k 07:50 – How did you get over the psychological barrier of that red line? 08:20 – Spending money when you have money. 08:35 – A more rational spending plan. 09:05 – She will keep that money in the bank. 09:45 – That extra money has allowed for growth. 10:20 – She has people under her responsibility. 10:55 – She has one cofounder. 11:05 – How they determined equity. 11:15 – An even split for people who will be there for the whole life of the company. 12:05 – They have no marketing team. 12:25 – She publishes content at blog.frontapp.com and @CollinMathilde on Medium and Twitter. 13:10 – Customer lifetime value: Customer churn is 3% 13:35 – Revenue churn is negative. 13:45 – They sell three plans. 14:10 – Selling the upsell versions to new teams in the same companies 15:00 – An inbound sales team 15:15 – Monthly and annual plans 15:35 – Lifetime value is about 33 months, or $6300 16:15 – Valuation was not disclosed 16:45 – Her goal is to make as many people possible happy at this company. 17:20 – They will try to go public eventually. 17:40 – They want to keep their product as it is, which would be difficult if it were acquired. 18:15 – Why customers churn 18:25 – They dislike how often changes happen. 19:05 – They grow 10% each month 19:30 – They would like to hit $300k this year. 19:45 – Connect with Mathilde on Twitter at @CollinMathilde 21:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points: Get a job that you love. Starting a business is hard—all entrepreneurs go through challenges. In the early stages of your company, keep perfecting your product.

Resources Mentioned: Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Toptal – Great for business people to start building their app blog.frontapp.com and @CollinMathilde on Medium and Twitter – Follow Mathilde and her company! The Hard Thing About Hard Things – The business book that completely changed Mathilde’s outlook on her business. Slack – The tool that Mathilde and her team use a ton at Front Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives